Trends, strategies and revolutionary solutions for 2013
Starting with October 2012, DGL Pro has launched a program of large scale integration of the SAS protocol into all types of games produced under the CLUB MASTER brand name. Advantages of such integration are the direct interfacing at the native level of the game boards, the absolute and efficient control of the regulatory governmental bodies for the exploitation activity and last, but not least, a new level of safety in operation thanks to the state-of-the-art technology in use. The motto of DGLPRO remains the reliability of the sytems.
The trend…
We are well aware that we have to develop and create game boards to adapt while maintaining quality in exploitation both in the low spectrum of potential buyers (‘economic and efficient’), as well as in the high end, where clients are after ‘exquisite’ products. As already mentioned, DGLPRO does not produce the video-imagistic or mathematics in gambling, but instead a unified whole, a monolith to include them all. The video presentation cannot prevail over the game strategy, or game mathematics versus the graphical presentation. The player should ignore that he is sitting in front of an electronic machine (which is in fact a virtual reality) – or else he is asked to interact with a reliable and true machine that sends out a feeling of trust and safety. Gambling is first and foremost interaction! The key to success is placed inside this ‘game board’: a happy customer, an accomplished state authority and a confident manager.
With these desiderata as starting point, the technological migration of the DGLPRO game boards is a two-stage process: hard and soft, of course interactive, and a thorough check of the in-between results.
The first stage consists in developing a much faster game board structure to support the USB and LAN integrations, for more efficient data transfers between the main system in charge with the game itself and the intelligent peripherals that connect with the exterior systems (herein the SAS-protocol). It is worthwhile mentioning that these recent game boards are fully compatible with the previous program versions (except for the new functions to be implemented) in such a way that certain customers who only want to update the hard game support will be delighted to do. We should also mention the much lower energy consumption along with higher efficiency, since the worst enemy of the systems operating in closed environments is the thermal packing! To assist with this improvement, we turned to cutting-edge technologies in wiring design, to a careful and exigent selection of the components, as well as to their ‘fitting’ into the system.
The main issue in designing an intelligent electronic board is choosing a suitable chipset, which is a combination of processor – peripherals that will provide all future soft development. An integrated circuit today will have a maximum two-year life on the market…And this time will divide into three stages: promo – the circuit is practically thrown on the market and is rather expensive, the stage of an effective presence on the market – when the gross price is diving and the last one – when the product becomes obsolete, i.e. can be still found in stocks but its use is not recommended for new projects and the manufacturing company stops its production…The launching state of the integrated circuit is when the electronic equipment manufacturers find about the product, via the specialty mass-media…Should we opt for using it, then we start designing the wiring boards to incorporate this circuit so that once the prototype and zero series are completed, we should be able to launch the mass production in full swing of cheap and affordable integrated circuits. The production will last until the circuit seems to be exiting the market. Maximum and flawless efficiency is the key word in this process! Otherwise, the process will start over with newer circuits and the losses cannot be recovered within the same project! The costs incurred here reach the order of tens or even hundreds of thousands euros, spread over a maximum one-year interval, until the mass production is discontinued.
The prototype is an expensive device, which use is being questioned up to the moment when it moves to the zero series stage.
The prototype is ugly, wired up, with bad looking welding, breakable and lacking any resonance, irrespective of the size of the manufacturer. All improvisation is left aside when the zero series starts and a small number of perfectly automatically wired cables will be hauled, followed by the final decision for the mass production. It should be reminded that the investment value is maximum now and there is no turning point. There are unhappy circumstances where a project stops here and so the investment turns into a loss.
As the electronic technology improves, the product life cycle on the market is smaller and smaller. While a specialized integrated circuit could be on sale for a decade between 1980 and 2000, the life is now shorter than one year. Despite of this, the manufacturers of circuits manage to come up with a newer, more competitive, complex and less energy consuming product every few months. This is why the ‘drawing board’ designing for a game board cannot last more than half a year, and a few more months for the small series. This is the reason why DGLPRO showcases new products at every annual exhibition in this field.
Hardware progress has triggered similar action for the soft. Thus, we have the DGLPRO programs taken apart into the primordial bricks and put them together for the new modern vision. We should not forget that, from the perspective of players, the changes above must be invisible. The player is completely uninterested in the revolution unfolding under his eyes with the DGLPRO systems. It is satisfaction the only thing he desires! And DGLPRO labs have taken the conversion steps into original and innovative systems!
Wiring design is essential. No compromise or risk zones are allowed (thermal or functional) on the surface of the game boards. The manufacturing of the prototypes is assigned to only the already checked and accepted companies, trustworthy, which have zero tolerance to lack of quality. The electronic components are carefully chosen, from again reliable companies. The planting, small series tests and following-up on prototypes are included in the exhaustive and rigorous job specifications.
The software ‘attack’ begins by collecting new resources that will allow the system to breathe normally. These resources can be described in two ways: the improvement of the hard system as above said and the optimization and refinement of the basic routines in the program. While mixing these two requirements, the flexibility necessary to the latest programs has been acquired. Innovating concepts have joined the resources for the game programs. Thus, the integrated system also includes the SAS controller, the touch screen facility and the multi-screen expander. These steps are taken very carefully, relying on feedback reactions from the field, radical decisions and minor yet subtle innovations.
Along with the modification that the latest products bring about, there are brief adjustments recommended by the companies in the gaming operating sector. These changes will be included in separate job specifications, are followed-up step by step on the field and, in the end, they are either accepted or not. We are sure that a system cannot be infallible but ‘alive’, which is a gradual immunization to the issues emerging during operation…
Why…
In the first place, we must defend our brand name. The gaming organizers using these DGLPRO systems never worry when buying them, as they think them safest. Unlike the auto industry, the game boards cannot be ‘recalled’ from the market to have them adjusted for better. The end users do not accept any excuses and they are extremely suspicious as their money is at stake. Being hesitant in this field equals calamity! For the money the customers are paying, they are entitled to a safe, relaxing and awarding game. And it is our duty to provide it!
In the second place, we have become ‘trend’ setters, drawing the path in this sector. And this is accomplished by the absolute control on the hard and soft systems (a reason why we never use operating systems built by others). The data libraries and programs in the DGLPRO labs comprise archives spreading over decades (1993…2013), with program versions, assembling techniques, board designing, registers listing observations on the field on the current issues….There have been many versions approached and dropped due to the lack of an appropriate technology at that time or – no embarrassment – of experience in dealing with a latest technology at a certain moment!
As any top company, we must be radical and conservative at the same time. In other words, we have to protect the trust core of the older program and to visibly and positively adjust it to the present game requirements.
